April 1, 2025 • 37 mins
The latest Building Black Business podcast episode features David Montague in conversation with Dr. Curtis Palmore, CEO of United Charter High Schools
In Partnership with @DriveToyota
In Partnership with @DriveToyota
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, My name is David Montague. Welcome to this
week's episode of The Building Black Biz Podcast. I am
here with doctor Curtis Palmore from United Charter High School.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome doctor, Thank you, How are you glad? How's it going?
It is busy but really good. I'm really excited to
be here today. Do you have to travel far just.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
From the Bronx from one of our schools today, but
it was a beautiful ride.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Actually, now public school, do you go by the public
school schedule or so, yeah, our schools.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
We follow largely follow the New York City Department of
Education schedule. That's similar for all traditional public high schools.
So the majority of our calendar is like very similar.
We do have a longer school day, so that's a
little bit different, but the calendar is basically the same.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
I say because a lot of my friends and older
adult friends that have kids that live in the city,
I'm like, you guys have a day off every week,
but it feels like.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
That sometimes it definitely feels like that. You know.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Then their schedule goes way late into June, so that's
you know whatever, not in that lane.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
But thank you for taking the time to talk to me. Today.
Thank you, I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Let's jump into everything. Describe your role with the United
Charter High school Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So, I'm the CEO of United Charter High Schools, and
what that means is that I have the privilege of
working with the Central Office team of professionals that help
to support our amazing seven schools. Our work is basically
to partner with our schools to help our schools to
be effective with the teaching and learning and the operations
(01:36):
and the financial work that happens across our seven schools.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So seven Are they all in the Bronx? Are they
all in New York like?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Where they are? So? Our schools all throughout New York City.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
We have four schools that are in the Bronx, two
that are in the South Bronx, and two that are
in the southwestern part of the Bronx.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
We have a school in Jamaica, Queens.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
We have a school in Faracaway, and then we also
have a school in Brooklyn.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
And sheeps at Bay Brooklyn. All over Yeah, all.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Over, yeah, yeah, I mean and that the original design
of the schools was to have impact across the city.
Now we don't get a chance to determine where our
schools are going to be at because the Department of
Education makes those determinations. But we were really privileged to
have impact across several boroughs.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
So let's talk about you and you deciding, Hey, I
want to take on this role. Did you want to
go into education when you were in undergrad or how
did you get here?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
So for me, you know, I grew up in the eighties,
and you know, for me, some of the folks that
I thought about as mentors were folks that lived in
my neighborhood. I one of my childhood friends was a
little bit older than me. His name was Ken Thompson,
the late Great Ken Thompson. He was Brooklyn Borough President.
So he kind of influenced me because at the time
(02:52):
he was going to law school. He hadn't influenced me
to think about law school as an option.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I went into undergrad with aspiration of becoming an attorney.
And I was pretty successful in undergrad and I wrapped
up a little early, and I decided that I'm going
to spend some time actually volunteering and waiting for graduation.
During that volunteer experience, I volunteered at an elementary school
(03:18):
and fell in love with.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
The idea of working with kids. Wow, fell in love.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
This young man named Hakim was one of my students
that I helped read with occasionally. Really a light bulb
kind of hit and that my senior year, and I said,
I really got to think about something else where. I
think I'll be more impactful and more passionate about. So
I pivoted from an entrance into law school to applying
to a program called Teach for America.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
And at that time, Teach for.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
America was a new organization supporting individuals that are interested
in teaching and underresourced communities, and I was fortunate to
get accepted.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I mean that was thirty years ago.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Wow, So thirty years ago I made the pivot and
to getting into the teaching field. I taught here in
New York City for several years and then had the
privilege of moving into administrative roles, and throughout that work,
I also gained several administrative degrees and then eventually my doctorate,
which helped to position me to kind of learn a
(04:16):
lot of organizational and gain some leadership competencies to help
me be prepared for a role which I'm currently in
and right now, Yeah, that's great that like someone thirty
years ago you still remember and clearly still had an
impact on you and a child and it.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Was a child. Yeah, it was a child. It was
a child.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
And you know, part of what the connection for me
was seeing how this young man I only volunteered like
two times a week, and he sought me every time
I came into the building. I saw that his grades
were getting better. And I just imagine if I could
have this impact on one student, absolutely, Like, what would
be the possibilities if I were to do this for
(04:56):
a career. And you know, I feel very blessed to
be to have the opportunity to do this work now
with over three thousand students, you know currently and I
think about my career probably even thousands of more students
that I've had had a pleasure of supporting.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Absolutely, Yeah, what does a typical day look like for
you across all these schools?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Yeah, So, you know, I will say that we are
very privileged. We have an amazing group of principles that
lead our seven schools with over one hundred and twenty
five collective years of leadership experience across our principals at
our seven schools. So they're the ones that lead their
respective campuses. They're the ones that you know, set up
the academic, the operational, and the financial and the parents
(05:43):
engagement aspects in their respective campuses. I have the privilege
of working with a team of folks within my central
office team that support our schools.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
So my days varying.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
It's like some days, like today, I've had to visit
a campus and I had to talk with some potential
potential donor about the work that we're doing. Some days,
I am spending heavy time looking over data, looking at
ways that we can maybe potentially do our work more effectively.
Some days, I mean that often it is in our
(06:15):
central office. Some days I'm spending working with the various
folks that are on different program teams the wild our
network to support some of the future growth that we have.
Some days are board days where I'm spending time to
prepare or actually having board meetings. So my day varies,
but it's never although done, never done. Never I think
(06:40):
you're the days of the parent teacher conferences are behind you.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
It sounds like the.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Definitely absolutely and I kind of miss some of those.
I really do miss because for me, those experiences when
I was a teacher and sometimes as a used to
be a principal and assistant principle. Those are the days
where you really get a chance to see the impact
of your work. Yeah, when families can say, hey, you
know you've been able to impact Johnny this way, or
(07:08):
Johnny has been able to I've seen his growth, or
I can talk about the efforts and see the food
of my labor. So I missed I kind of missed
some of those days, but there was a.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Long but long behind and talked about being an assistant
principle and a principle. Tell us your first day being
CEO and president, Like what did that look like?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Yeah, so the first formal day was spent like doing
hr stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
So it was like rephrase that first week.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
First week we had on you know, after you you're
in front of the computer, after you know, press play, press,
you know, skip all the paperwork and everything.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
What did that first a filling week?
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So for me that first week, and I think this
was the first week or to I had an opportunity
to go out to the seven schools and I plan
time to sit with the principal and their senior cabinet teams.
And part of what I did was, I, you know,
I just talked to them about some of my core
values as a leader, and then I've asked them to share,
(08:10):
like you know, what makes this place so special and like,
you know, what do you think we need to do
to kind of think about making our collective work even
more effective? And of course our seven schools probably met
with over fifty people amongst those teams, and I really
got a good sense of, like, you know, what our
kind of operating values are. I got a good sense
(08:32):
of like who we are as individuals. I got a
chance to kind of see like statistically we do really
well with our graduation race. But I got a good
chance to see like the kind of secret sauce to
e those of like what's happening in every school and
that Yeah, that really made me kind of really a
have a high level of gratitude as for the people
(08:54):
that are within an organization. But it also gave me
a sense of, like, you know what we need to
continue cultivating as we think about United.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Try to high school.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Did you have any backup plans? Was this you know
when you were oh you know what, this was a
backup plan? I answered my own question. Yeah, I think
I don't even want to say the backup, but this
is kind of the subplot that you didn't expect yourself
taking on, right, Yeah, I didn't chug away law school.
You're like, hey, I spin off. Let's say, did you
(09:25):
see this in the cards?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
No?
Speaker 3 (09:28):
No, I what I saw in the cards was being
a teacher and having impact. And I have a high
level of respect for the teachers that spend decades within
the class. And my family background is kind of interesting.
My great great grandfather was the principal of several one
room segregated schools in South KA during the Gym Crow era.
(09:52):
And I so you know, I grew up with the
high level of reverence and respect my aunts.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Several of my aunts for educators, and.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
They spent thirty forty two years with it in classrooms.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
So I had a high level of respect.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
And when I finally made that pivot to say I
want to be an education, I thought my trajectory would
be working in classrooms for decades, right, And I think
the shift for me was I started teaching in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Five and that year was the year where the New York.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
City Department Education introduced laptops into their classroom partnership with IBM.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
All of the senior teachers were like, there's no way
I'm taking this on really, and I, as a newbie,
said hey, I'll I'll pilot it. And then that pilot
actually turned into an opportunity for me to teach other
teachers at my school about that, and my principal tapped
me on the shoulder in one of those trainings, was like, Curtis,
you're a natural leader. You should really think about getting
(10:55):
your your ADMIN license. And then I kind of said, yeah,
let me think about what schools I can get into,
and ended up going to Fordham, Colombia and then down
the line pen to get different degrees to kind of
help me on this trajectory.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
I have to say, when you said nineteen ninety five,
I was like, oh, that seems like no, it was
just yesterday. But I was born in ninety seven. I
know I'm about to hit thirty and like, that's thirty
years ago, right, yes, And we've evolved obviously, from IBM
to iPads to chrome bugs. You know, how does the
classroom look different between nineteen ninety five to now?
Speaker 3 (11:33):
You know, I think what we saw back in the day,
and I say back in the day with reverence of respect,
because I'm sure it was work prior to nineteen ninety five,
But there was definitely more of a focus on the
teacher kind of being a center stage taking the bolt
of the thinking throughout learning. So you know, there was
(11:55):
often times where and I had this where the teacher
was at the chalkboard and that the students were focused
on taking notes often and it was a regurgitation of information.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Now, especially within.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Our schools here in I to chart to high schools,
we have a focus on the teacher really being the
facilitator of learning, but the heavy critical thinking and the
kind of discovery approach and sometimes the challenge based focus
is more that.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
That load is put on students.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yeah, and it's like and it's helping, and that in
so many ways helps to develop student critical fostert critical thinking,
and it helps students to gain kind of new perspectives
about the work.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
It helps students to have a higher level.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Of interest when they're focused on doing that type of
work within our classrooms.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Let's talk more about the classrooms in your schools. What
if family is considering their options for different types of schools.
What are some objects, what are some things that they
should be thinking about?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
So, you know, one of the things that you and
I were talking earlier about the places where we live.
You know, I made a decision to leave the New
York City area primarily because I wanted to make sure
that my children would have a great K through twelve
learning experience. So I found a really good school district
(13:16):
first and then decided to work from there. And you know,
so top of mind for me is always like, how
what are we doing to ensure that our families have
a good foundation on Like what is happening within our schools?
You know, our schools are designed around seven key design elements,
and these key design elements really come true and a
(13:38):
lot of the work that we do within our schools.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I could take a moment to time. I'm ready for
you to name them.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
So innovative and responsive teaching and learning, individualized supports for
diverse learners holistically.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I'm sorry, diverse learners. Diverse learners. Oh, I've never heard
that it's a common term.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
It's a common term within the K twelve experiences.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
So important because I'm thinking about when I was growing
up and when I was in high school and I
just talked to one of my coworkers a couple of
hours ago about being a visual learner and how like
words honest like chalk word. Everyone can read that, but
I'm not understanding that, and like creating the classroom to
be a safe space. So like, hey, this is what
we should this is how you should learn, or this
(14:25):
is I'm catering to this learning you know idea, and
then this one too when for the people that may
not understand A and B, like this is c I
think that's so important because I love that.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
I love that term. That's as a sidetrack.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
But no, you know, and just so you know, like
to unpack that, it's we look at it the learning
styles of our students. We look at it the kind
of the backgrounds that our students have. Like some of
our students may have individual education Plans or IEPs, right,
there's a different level of support that they may need.
There might be students who English is not their first language.
There's a different level of support. So when we love that,
(14:59):
you're right, al right, you know, they're students that they
may have emotional supports that are needed so that they
may they may need counseling throughout a portion of the day,
and we you know, we look holistically at all those
aspects when supporting our students. So I'm really I'm happy
that you unpacked that because it's not just like kind
(15:20):
of those other niche areas that it's also learning styles,
but holistic social, and emotional support. And I could talk
a little bit about kind of some of the structural
things that we do within our schools around that. This
next one is really big, So you know, it's the
key design element is comprehensive post secondary readiness and that
what that means for us is that, you know, part
(15:41):
of our work is to obviously graduate our students within
four years, absolutely, but we want to make sure that
they have a post secondary experience that's set up for
them post graduation.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Not all being college. That's what it sounds like. You're
absolutely right. Yeah, I'm like, I'm thinking about jays I.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
My first high school experience was at seene Hall Prep
before school. I left because I didn't really it, but
then went to public school and I got close to
I know, seene Hall Prep was very much like we
have one hundred percent college graduation rate, Like you have
to go there and our sister schools. I had some
friends that they didn't get into any of their schools,
(16:22):
and they're like, you need to get into a school
because you're.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Going to mess up our metrics. Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
So I'm like, oh my gosh, like I and we
were fifteen sixteen at the time, but having that pressure
on you was terrible. But then when I went to
I transferred out and went to my my public school,
I was able to talk to mentors and my teachers
that you know, I talk to them every day like, Hey,
this college isn't in the cards for everybody, and that's okay.
Trade school, it's going immediately into a full time position,
(16:51):
you know, it's finding yourself abroad.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
You know, it doesn't have to be that.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
So hearing something like that, that's just so like, what's
so refreshing, you know, and very calming to be like,
oh wow, this makes this is great?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Yeah, and you think about it as well, like even
if college isn't the cards for you with quite frankly,
I do say, I hope that is the case for
all of our students, But even if it is in
the cards for you, the reality is that we serve
largely black and brown students across our schools, most black
and brown students just geographically from the communities that we're serving, Like, financially,
(17:26):
it is going to be a big hurdle for them
to pay for college.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, and like.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
The college student of today may have to have some
type of career to help finance their college experience.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Or in the case, you know, working over the weekend
or taking some semester off. My friend took took her
six years to graduate because she would do with semester,
didn't work a couple of weeks, and then until she
was able to pay back only because she didn't want
the loans and granted, like I completely get it right,
Like it's unfeasible, the credit goes down, and I'm giving
(17:59):
students that op to realize, like, hey, this you don't
have to have what everyone else is going through, right
like you, there isn't a, like I said before, one
size fits all like that, that's not the case in education.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
So that's great.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Yeah, and you know, part of what we're doing is
we're looking at ways that we can give our students
micro credentials. We can give them opportunities for internships, externships,
giving them opportunities to earn college credits. Like several of
our schools are students, Like we have a partnership with
the University of Delaware, our flagship school. They're actually our
(18:33):
students that are leaving. Our junior seniors are taking up
to three college credits before they leave. So like that's
helping to like stet this pathway. We're sponsoring college tips.
We just recently two days ago, I had a huge
college and career fair at one of our schools with
over five hundred people in attendance.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
So we really, you know, are doing a multiple type
of multiple pathways.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Is to ensure that there's some post secondary experience all
of our students. That's great, Yeah, and then the other
two and we could talk about it, but inclusive family engagement,
civic and community engagement, and then really looking at data
driven practices across all of our schools.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Why are charter schools so important? I mean you touched on, Yeah,
if I had kids, I would be pitching myself, like,
you know, trying like how do I get my kids here?
But why why should choose a charter school?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
You know, I will say first that I think families
should choose a good school period. Yeah, to me, it's
not about charter, parochio private obviously or traditional public. You know, obviously,
I'm here to promote and share about the great work
that we're doing across United charter high schools, and you know,
(19:52):
I'm I'm so happy about that. But I believe, you know,
the in the spirit of thinking about what's best for
the families and community that we serve, I would encourage
families to do your research and find really good schools. Absolutely,
charter schools I think provide our families options. I've seen
it so many times where the neighborhood school and.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
This was the case for me.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I grew up in the South Box and quite frankly,
my parents moved to certain areas because the neighborhood schools
were just not meeting it.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah. Yeah, and at that time, the only option for.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
My families were the traditional public school or paying for
parochial schools, which at that time my parents couldn't afford.
And I do think charter schools give families so many
different options, especially in cities like New York, Washington, Houston,
in LA where there's so many different options.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
We talked on the core values, and you know why
someone our family should choose United Charter high schools for
their program or academic life. Yeah, how do you integrate
the daily student life and what's going on outside of
the house or you know, like personal things, what they're
doing on the weekends.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
How does that tie into United Chariter High school. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
So, you know, we our schools obviously, you know, as
I shared or we provide multiple opportunities for teaching and learning,
but we also have a plethora of extracurricular and after
school and in some cases weekend experiences for our students on
our schools. Across our schools, every campus has several after
(21:33):
school clubs and teams. We're part of the PSA PA
SA L League for several different sports where our students
are competing and in fact competing with so many other
student athletes across the city. And in fact, we have
several current students that are competing at D one school.
(21:58):
We even have a former student from a MS Advanced
Math and Science three who is currently in the NFL,
Titus Leo Great plays for the New England Patriots. So
like those kind of experiences are having our kids and
our campuses are on the weekends on Saturdays for practice
they're having our kids coming in for games throughout the weekend.
(22:21):
And we also, you know, do a lot of experiences
to set our kids up for their post secondary experiences. So,
as I kind of hinted on before, a good amount
of our schools are planning college trips to go to
different universities. We several of our schools have planned and
are doing.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
A broad trip trips abroad.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
So there's a plethor of different countries that teachers and
some leaders are planning trips and it's giving you know,
what I believe is just a whole well rounded experience
for our kids to not just have learning within the
walls in our schools, but you know around the world
as well.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Let's talk about civic engagement where your priorities and just
getting back to that community.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
What does that look like?
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah, So, how it plays out in our schools is
that our students in their junior and senior year have
an opportunity to kind of dig deep into tackling a
problem most of the time that's connected to their school
through a civic engagement experience. And the experience is essentially
(23:30):
groups of students that are working together to create a
solution to solve some type of school related problem. That
those presentations are done in a way where they present
to guests and then ultimately the students have an opportunity
to kind of win an award to like actually be
(23:51):
funded for their project to be funded.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Also, it turns into reality. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Yeah, it's kind of like kind of like a shark
tank ish of experience for our students. What that does
is a it just promotes a high level of high
level critical thinking with the students. Students have to kind
of learn to work with their peers. Their kind of
culmination to it is that they have experiences and the
(24:18):
economics and their government classes in their junior year where
they kind of learn a lot of the kind of
ins and outs of like different aspects that connect to
these projects. And then they get to select their focus
for their project and their senior year, and then they
present before their graduation.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
It's really like they're seeing it through Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, and this connects to civic deeal of readiness that
they actually get in their graduation diplomas as well. I mean,
this happens across all of our schools. It may look
a little different in terms of execution, but it happens
in all of our schools.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
I really really love that part of.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Our work, and I think it as particularly within the
currentolitical climate.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
That we're in.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
I think that we, you know, could broaden this focus
to not just be like problems within our schools per se,
but problems that may just be existent to our world
and to our country.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
So I'm hopeful that.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
You know, some of these projects over the next several
years will be tackling some of those things.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
I come from a family of educators. So my mom
is was a school teacher in Nork, New Jersey at
Westside High School. Yes, so she's she's been, she has stories. Yes,
her and I have talked about only bringing up politics,
talking about the political climate and what might be like
the end of the Board of Education. Does that what
(25:39):
does that look like? You know, does that impact you
guys at all?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Like, well, we don't know yet.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Today actually might be the historic moment of the formal
executive signing to dismantle the Department of Education nationally.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Right now there are still a lot of unknowns.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
But do you know that the areas that may be
impacted are the federal governments focused on tracking data, particularly
for diverse learners. There's a whole built out structure that
if that establishment is no longer existing, there's a wondering
around how that tracking of data. I think the other
(26:22):
piece is that the Department Education has set standards for
academic excellence across the country, and if that entity is
no longer here, there's a strong possibility that we will
have a shift around what the standard is for academic excellence.
(26:43):
So I think there's still a lot of unknowns. I
think in the weeks to come we will potentially get
more guidance from if that entity is shut down, probably
the state will probably take on in terms of giving
us some structure and guidance around whatever could do.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
But wrapping up, what are some plans that you can
share about your vision for United Charter High Schools in
the future. Anything would you like like taking on more schools?
Is it expanding, you know, getting out of the New
York State?
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Is going to Jersey? Like? What what do you have?
Speaker 3 (27:17):
So you know, our focus right now is largely around
building out the infrastructure for our schools. Our schools were
founded through another organization about twelve thirteen years ago. United
Charter High Schools is the inaugural year. Even though our
schools have been around for you know, over a decade,
(27:39):
most of them been over a decade. This is the
first inaugural year of United Charter High School. We actually
went through a name changing ceremony last year to announce
the shift from what we used to be known formerly
known as New Visions for Public Schools to United Charia
High Schools Fantastic and you.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Know, so part of this is this year is building
out an infrastructure.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
We're looking at further developing kind of three big areas.
The first is, like, you know, we are looking to
flesh out what this structure which is known as a
portrait of a graduate. I mean essentially what that balls
down to is like what are the like attributes, What
are the competencies?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
What are the skills that we want.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Every single student to have by the time they leave
our doors? And like how we fostering the how we're
developing that from the time that they enter our doors.
And like we have a team which is called the
Network Inquiry Team. We have a team of educators that
are working on building out our kind of attributes in
(28:41):
a way that will help us to like have a
clear roadmap of how we're doing that across our schools.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
That's the first thing.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Second thing is like we are really looking at ways
to just support recruitment across all of our schools. Like
part of the reason why I'm here is so that
what I believe are some of the best kept secrets
and some of the communities that we serve.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
I want families to know about us.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Yeah, yeah, And you know, we are going we're hitting
the pavement.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Hard to like talk about the great work.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
We're encouraging families to go to United Charda High School
dot org to like find out more about us, to
if they have a child that's in ninth and twelfth grade,
to have the opportunity to apply directly at United Charda High.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
School dot org.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
And we're really looking systematically about doing that and through
media campaigns and through a lot of other recruitment efforts.
And then I think the biggest thing is that we
believe that the teaching and learning process is iterative and
that there's always way that we can be better with that. Absolutely,
so we're like continuously working on building out systems to
(29:48):
improve that.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
I want to talk a little bit about you for
a minute. What is your self care look like. Imagine
you're traveling all over the citate, you know, like coming
from Jersey to the city. I do it every day.
So from the same area, how do you relax? Like
what is what is a day? What does a day off?
Where weekend look like?
Speaker 3 (30:09):
So you know, I have my children are nine and
eleven on divij and so my weekend spent I've spent
a lot of time with my kids doing taking them
from sports events and having down time with them, reading
and hanging out. But for me, I'm a big person
on balance, So yeah, you know, I think it's important
(30:30):
that and I put in long hours every single day
and sometimes throughout the weekend, so I like to have
a balance with working out. I have several nights where
I play basketball and a forty and above league to
just keep those kind of like act insect and thinks
(30:51):
in the court active. And then you know, I do also,
you know, I'm a big believer and just constant learning.
Hence the reason why I've gotten through so many educational programs.
So I do a lot of reading and like personal
reflection as well.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Do you see your kids, like, do you do they
know what they want to do? Do they want to
go in the education route or are they completely over it?
What do they want to do?
Speaker 3 (31:18):
So they've been able to view a daddy as a
principal several years back. Then they came to my school,
so I think, you know, my son already wants to
be He said he wants to be an engineer.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Completely different. Yeah, yeah he is. He is like big
and he's really into like fixing things.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
He was that type of kid that would take things
apart and put together and put it back together when
he was like three years old.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Okay, yeah, so he has that. He has that kind
of type of thinking in his brain.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
My daughter is definitely more on the art side, and
which actually I'm also I'm and I went to art
high school. I'm a former graffiti artist, so, like you know,
so she probably has a bit of that for me
as well. But she's she's she's a great singer, it's
a great dancer, and she's like very social. So I
(32:11):
could see her maybe going into one of the sids.
Whatever they decide. I'm gonna support absolutely. That's kind of
like my motto.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
We will be playing her song here on my heart.
So yes, just to wrap up, big music lover, if
you had your own iHeart radio station on our app.
Which artists and songs would you feature?
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Could be like a playlist, could be a nice little group.
You know, how many songs could I up to you?
Up to you? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (32:39):
All right, Usually there's like a five like saying five
because and then having each of the artists kind of
be like nothing like one another. But it could be
open to anything.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
All right. So let me just get they're not this
you know, like about it. You're like music is very.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Important to be okay, Okay, so all right, so I
the first would be Whitney Houston. I cannot go wrong
with the good Whitney Houston song. And I probably would
pick the more up tempo Whitney Houston.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Maybe my love. The second would be Sam Cook.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Wow, okay, and I would say anything from Sam Cook anything.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
We're R and B lane, Yes, the R and B lane.
The next would be.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Okay, absolutely and again R and B but I think
she's just so those are like when I have my
peaceful time, like there's those are artists that I would
listen to.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
I would probably go next with Jay Z Okay, get
a little bit more up more.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
I was gonna go with the Originally for the Bronx,
I was going to go to the Bronx artist, but
I gotta give it to Jay like Jay and I
would probably go with anything from the Black Album from
jay Z, from Jack Okay, and then you know, I
would probably go with a probably an unknown artist to most,
but Fred Hammond. Yes, he is a gospel artist and
(34:15):
he like is very very influential and like supporting his music,
supporting me through some really tough parts of my life
when folks passed and so forth.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
So I would go with Fred Hammon. I like that
playlist there, like very twenty four hours. It seems very soulful,
very It could be a little loud at some points.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
With jay Z, but that's okay.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
To wrap up, how do you I know you mentioned
the website a couple of times just in the conversation,
But families want to learn more about that, about the schools,
about the visions big Where can they find them?
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Yeah, United dot Org.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
All of our handles on there as well, and the
phone numbers are there as well.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
If you're interested in contact us directly.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
United We'd love to connect with families, particularly over the next.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Several weeks before we have our lottery or our mission.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I was gonna say that school, is this the time?
Are people too late? You know, like what is the
sweet spot of like hey, like you need to enter?
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Yeah, we would We would hope to have families, particularly
families that are entering in ninth grade, that they would
apply before April eighth. We can think about admission posts
April eighth, okay, because technically families have up until September to.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Make that decision.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
But our lottery is held on April eighth, and that's
the process that all charter schools in the state of
New York have a lottery admission.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
But United chatter High School dot org.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
You can click on and roll now you can be
directed to the process to apply.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
And what's the last thing if you want to the
people that are if you had to give one sentence
or one paragraph to people that are on the fence,
families that are on expensive about charter schools, what would
you say.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
I would say to families is that you know, there
has been so much media and attention to the charter
schools that in some cases may have like prison like
structures where there's like very.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Strict, very not family friendly. In some cases, student friendly experiences.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
And you know, our charter schools are schools that, as
I stated before, have an inclusive family engagement.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
We're looking to partner with families.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Our charter schools have classes where we focus on Dollybell instruction.
We have safe learning environments cross Brooklyn, Queens in the Bronx,
and you know, we would welcome families to have an
opportunity to see us in real time by coming out
to seeing the great work that we're doing across our schools.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Fantastic doctor is great talking to you today, same here.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
You can find more episodes of the Building Biz Podcast
on iHeartRadio or wherever you stream your podcast. My name
is David Montague and we will see you next time.
Hello everyone, My name is David Montague. Welcome to this
week's episode of The Building Black Biz Podcast. I am
here with doctor Curtis Palmore from United Charter High School.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome doctor, Thank you, How are you glad? How's it going?
It is busy but really good. I'm really excited to
be here today. Do you have to travel far just.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
From the Bronx from one of our schools today, but
it was a beautiful ride.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Actually, now public school, do you go by the public
school schedule or so, yeah, our schools.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
We follow largely follow the New York City Department of
Education schedule. That's similar for all traditional public high schools.
So the majority of our calendar is like very similar.
We do have a longer school day, so that's a
little bit different, but the calendar is basically the same.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
I say because a lot of my friends and older
adult friends that have kids that live in the city,
I'm like, you guys have a day off every week,
but it feels like.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
That sometimes it definitely feels like that. You know.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Then their schedule goes way late into June, so that's
you know whatever, not in that lane.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
But thank you for taking the time to talk to me. Today.
Thank you, I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Let's jump into everything. Describe your role with the United
Charter High school Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So, I'm the CEO of United Charter High Schools, and
what that means is that I have the privilege of
working with the Central Office team of professionals that help
to support our amazing seven schools. Our work is basically
to partner with our schools to help our schools to
be effective with the teaching and learning and the operations
(01:36):
and the financial work that happens across our seven schools.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So seven Are they all in the Bronx? Are they
all in New York like?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Where they are? So? Our schools all throughout New York City.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
We have four schools that are in the Bronx, two
that are in the South Bronx, and two that are
in the southwestern part of the Bronx.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
We have a school in Jamaica, Queens.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
We have a school in Faracaway, and then we also
have a school in Brooklyn.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
And sheeps at Bay Brooklyn. All over Yeah, all.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Over, yeah, yeah, I mean and that the original design
of the schools was to have impact across the city.
Now we don't get a chance to determine where our
schools are going to be at because the Department of
Education makes those determinations. But we were really privileged to
have impact across several boroughs.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
So let's talk about you and you deciding, Hey, I
want to take on this role. Did you want to
go into education when you were in undergrad or how
did you get here?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
So for me, you know, I grew up in the eighties,
and you know, for me, some of the folks that
I thought about as mentors were folks that lived in
my neighborhood. I one of my childhood friends was a
little bit older than me. His name was Ken Thompson,
the late Great Ken Thompson. He was Brooklyn Borough President.
So he kind of influenced me because at the time
(02:52):
he was going to law school. He hadn't influenced me
to think about law school as an option.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I went into undergrad with aspiration of becoming an attorney.
And I was pretty successful in undergrad and I wrapped
up a little early, and I decided that I'm going
to spend some time actually volunteering and waiting for graduation.
During that volunteer experience, I volunteered at an elementary school
(03:18):
and fell in love with.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
The idea of working with kids. Wow, fell in love.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
This young man named Hakim was one of my students
that I helped read with occasionally. Really a light bulb
kind of hit and that my senior year, and I said,
I really got to think about something else where. I
think I'll be more impactful and more passionate about. So
I pivoted from an entrance into law school to applying
to a program called Teach for America.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
And at that time, Teach for.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
America was a new organization supporting individuals that are interested
in teaching and underresourced communities, and I was fortunate to
get accepted.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I mean that was thirty years ago.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Wow, So thirty years ago I made the pivot and
to getting into the teaching field. I taught here in
New York City for several years and then had the
privilege of moving into administrative roles, and throughout that work,
I also gained several administrative degrees and then eventually my doctorate,
which helped to position me to kind of learn a
(04:16):
lot of organizational and gain some leadership competencies to help
me be prepared for a role which I'm currently in
and right now, Yeah, that's great that like someone thirty
years ago you still remember and clearly still had an
impact on you and a child and it.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Was a child. Yeah, it was a child. It was
a child.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
And you know, part of what the connection for me
was seeing how this young man I only volunteered like
two times a week, and he sought me every time
I came into the building. I saw that his grades
were getting better. And I just imagine if I could
have this impact on one student, absolutely, Like, what would
be the possibilities if I were to do this for
(04:56):
a career. And you know, I feel very blessed to
be to have the opportunity to do this work now
with over three thousand students, you know currently and I
think about my career probably even thousands of more students
that I've had had a pleasure of supporting.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Absolutely, Yeah, what does a typical day look like for
you across all these schools?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Yeah, So, you know, I will say that we are
very privileged. We have an amazing group of principles that
lead our seven schools with over one hundred and twenty
five collective years of leadership experience across our principals at
our seven schools. So they're the ones that lead their
respective campuses. They're the ones that you know, set up
the academic, the operational, and the financial and the parents
(05:43):
engagement aspects in their respective campuses. I have the privilege
of working with a team of folks within my central
office team that support our schools.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
So my days varying.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
It's like some days, like today, I've had to visit
a campus and I had to talk with some potential
potential donor about the work that we're doing. Some days,
I am spending heavy time looking over data, looking at
ways that we can maybe potentially do our work more effectively.
Some days, I mean that often it is in our
(06:15):
central office. Some days I'm spending working with the various
folks that are on different program teams the wild our
network to support some of the future growth that we have.
Some days are board days where I'm spending time to
prepare or actually having board meetings. So my day varies,
but it's never although done, never done. Never I think
(06:40):
you're the days of the parent teacher conferences are behind you.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
It sounds like the.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Definitely absolutely and I kind of miss some of those.
I really do miss because for me, those experiences when
I was a teacher and sometimes as a used to
be a principal and assistant principle. Those are the days
where you really get a chance to see the impact
of your work. Yeah, when families can say, hey, you
know you've been able to impact Johnny this way, or
(07:08):
Johnny has been able to I've seen his growth, or
I can talk about the efforts and see the food
of my labor. So I missed I kind of missed
some of those days, but there was a.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Long but long behind and talked about being an assistant
principle and a principle. Tell us your first day being
CEO and president, Like what did that look like?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Yeah, so the first formal day was spent like doing
hr stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
So it was like rephrase that first week.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
First week we had on you know, after you you're
in front of the computer, after you know, press play, press,
you know, skip all the paperwork and everything.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
What did that first a filling week?
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So for me that first week, and I think this
was the first week or to I had an opportunity
to go out to the seven schools and I plan
time to sit with the principal and their senior cabinet teams.
And part of what I did was, I, you know,
I just talked to them about some of my core
values as a leader, and then I've asked them to share,
(08:10):
like you know, what makes this place so special and like,
you know, what do you think we need to do
to kind of think about making our collective work even
more effective? And of course our seven schools probably met
with over fifty people amongst those teams, and I really
got a good sense of, like, you know, what our
kind of operating values are. I got a good sense
(08:32):
of like who we are as individuals. I got a
chance to kind of see like statistically we do really
well with our graduation race. But I got a good
chance to see like the kind of secret sauce to
e those of like what's happening in every school and
that Yeah, that really made me kind of really a
have a high level of gratitude as for the people
(08:54):
that are within an organization. But it also gave me
a sense of, like, you know what we need to
continue cultivating as we think about United.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Try to high school.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Did you have any backup plans? Was this you know
when you were oh you know what, this was a
backup plan? I answered my own question. Yeah, I think
I don't even want to say the backup, but this
is kind of the subplot that you didn't expect yourself
taking on, right, Yeah, I didn't chug away law school.
You're like, hey, I spin off. Let's say, did you
(09:25):
see this in the cards?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
No?
Speaker 3 (09:28):
No, I what I saw in the cards was being
a teacher and having impact. And I have a high
level of respect for the teachers that spend decades within
the class. And my family background is kind of interesting.
My great great grandfather was the principal of several one
room segregated schools in South KA during the Gym Crow era.
(09:52):
And I so you know, I grew up with the
high level of reverence and respect my aunts.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Several of my aunts for educators, and.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
They spent thirty forty two years with it in classrooms.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
So I had a high level of respect.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
And when I finally made that pivot to say I
want to be an education, I thought my trajectory would
be working in classrooms for decades, right, And I think
the shift for me was I started teaching in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Five and that year was the year where the New York.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
City Department Education introduced laptops into their classroom partnership with IBM.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
All of the senior teachers were like, there's no way
I'm taking this on really, and I, as a newbie,
said hey, I'll I'll pilot it. And then that pilot
actually turned into an opportunity for me to teach other
teachers at my school about that, and my principal tapped
me on the shoulder in one of those trainings, was like, Curtis,
you're a natural leader. You should really think about getting
(10:55):
your your ADMIN license. And then I kind of said, yeah,
let me think about what schools I can get into,
and ended up going to Fordham, Colombia and then down
the line pen to get different degrees to kind of
help me on this trajectory.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
I have to say, when you said nineteen ninety five,
I was like, oh, that seems like no, it was
just yesterday. But I was born in ninety seven. I
know I'm about to hit thirty and like, that's thirty
years ago, right, yes, And we've evolved obviously, from IBM
to iPads to chrome bugs. You know, how does the
classroom look different between nineteen ninety five to now?
Speaker 3 (11:33):
You know, I think what we saw back in the day,
and I say back in the day with reverence of respect,
because I'm sure it was work prior to nineteen ninety five,
But there was definitely more of a focus on the
teacher kind of being a center stage taking the bolt
of the thinking throughout learning. So you know, there was
(11:55):
often times where and I had this where the teacher
was at the chalkboard and that the students were focused
on taking notes often and it was a regurgitation of information.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Now, especially within.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Our schools here in I to chart to high schools,
we have a focus on the teacher really being the
facilitator of learning, but the heavy critical thinking and the
kind of discovery approach and sometimes the challenge based focus
is more that.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
That load is put on students.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yeah, and it's like and it's helping, and that in
so many ways helps to develop student critical fostert critical thinking,
and it helps students to gain kind of new perspectives
about the work.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
It helps students to have a higher level.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Of interest when they're focused on doing that type of
work within our classrooms.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Let's talk more about the classrooms in your schools. What
if family is considering their options for different types of schools.
What are some objects, what are some things that they
should be thinking about?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
So, you know, one of the things that you and
I were talking earlier about the places where we live.
You know, I made a decision to leave the New
York City area primarily because I wanted to make sure
that my children would have a great K through twelve
learning experience. So I found a really good school district
(13:16):
first and then decided to work from there. And you know,
so top of mind for me is always like, how
what are we doing to ensure that our families have
a good foundation on Like what is happening within our schools?
You know, our schools are designed around seven key design elements,
and these key design elements really come true and a
(13:38):
lot of the work that we do within our schools.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I could take a moment to time. I'm ready for
you to name them.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
So innovative and responsive teaching and learning, individualized supports for
diverse learners holistically.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I'm sorry, diverse learners. Diverse learners. Oh, I've never heard
that it's a common term.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
It's a common term within the K twelve experiences.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
So important because I'm thinking about when I was growing
up and when I was in high school and I
just talked to one of my coworkers a couple of
hours ago about being a visual learner and how like
words honest like chalk word. Everyone can read that, but
I'm not understanding that, and like creating the classroom to
be a safe space. So like, hey, this is what
we should this is how you should learn, or this
(14:25):
is I'm catering to this learning you know idea, and
then this one too when for the people that may
not understand A and B, like this is c I
think that's so important because I love that.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
I love that term. That's as a sidetrack.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
But no, you know, and just so you know, like
to unpack that, it's we look at it the learning
styles of our students. We look at it the kind
of the backgrounds that our students have. Like some of
our students may have individual education Plans or IEPs, right,
there's a different level of support that they may need.
There might be students who English is not their first language.
There's a different level of support. So when we love that,
(14:59):
you're right, al right, you know, they're students that they
may have emotional supports that are needed so that they
may they may need counseling throughout a portion of the day,
and we you know, we look holistically at all those
aspects when supporting our students. So I'm really I'm happy
that you unpacked that because it's not just like kind
(15:20):
of those other niche areas that it's also learning styles,
but holistic social, and emotional support. And I could talk
a little bit about kind of some of the structural
things that we do within our schools around that. This
next one is really big, So you know, it's the
key design element is comprehensive post secondary readiness and that
what that means for us is that, you know, part
(15:41):
of our work is to obviously graduate our students within
four years, absolutely, but we want to make sure that
they have a post secondary experience that's set up for
them post graduation.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Not all being college. That's what it sounds like. You're
absolutely right. Yeah, I'm like, I'm thinking about jays I.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
My first high school experience was at seene Hall Prep
before school. I left because I didn't really it, but
then went to public school and I got close to
I know, seene Hall Prep was very much like we
have one hundred percent college graduation rate, Like you have
to go there and our sister schools. I had some
friends that they didn't get into any of their schools,
(16:22):
and they're like, you need to get into a school
because you're.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Going to mess up our metrics. Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
So I'm like, oh my gosh, like I and we
were fifteen sixteen at the time, but having that pressure
on you was terrible. But then when I went to
I transferred out and went to my my public school,
I was able to talk to mentors and my teachers
that you know, I talk to them every day like, Hey,
this college isn't in the cards for everybody, and that's okay.
Trade school, it's going immediately into a full time position,
(16:51):
you know, it's finding yourself abroad.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
You know, it doesn't have to be that.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
So hearing something like that, that's just so like, what's
so refreshing, you know, and very calming to be like,
oh wow, this makes this is great?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Yeah, and you think about it as well, like even
if college isn't the cards for you with quite frankly,
I do say, I hope that is the case for
all of our students, But even if it is in
the cards for you, the reality is that we serve
largely black and brown students across our schools, most black
and brown students just geographically from the communities that we're serving, Like, financially,
(17:26):
it is going to be a big hurdle for them
to pay for college.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, and like.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
The college student of today may have to have some
type of career to help finance their college experience.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Or in the case, you know, working over the weekend
or taking some semester off. My friend took took her
six years to graduate because she would do with semester,
didn't work a couple of weeks, and then until she
was able to pay back only because she didn't want
the loans and granted, like I completely get it right,
Like it's unfeasible, the credit goes down, and I'm giving
(17:59):
students that op to realize, like, hey, this you don't
have to have what everyone else is going through, right
like you, there isn't a, like I said before, one
size fits all like that, that's not the case in education.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
So that's great.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Yeah, and you know, part of what we're doing is
we're looking at ways that we can give our students
micro credentials. We can give them opportunities for internships, externships,
giving them opportunities to earn college credits. Like several of
our schools are students, Like we have a partnership with
the University of Delaware, our flagship school. They're actually our
(18:33):
students that are leaving. Our junior seniors are taking up
to three college credits before they leave. So like that's
helping to like stet this pathway. We're sponsoring college tips.
We just recently two days ago, I had a huge
college and career fair at one of our schools with
over five hundred people in attendance.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
So we really, you know, are doing a multiple type
of multiple pathways.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Is to ensure that there's some post secondary experience all
of our students. That's great, Yeah, and then the other
two and we could talk about it, but inclusive family engagement,
civic and community engagement, and then really looking at data
driven practices across all of our schools.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Why are charter schools so important? I mean you touched on, Yeah,
if I had kids, I would be pitching myself, like,
you know, trying like how do I get my kids here?
But why why should choose a charter school?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
You know, I will say first that I think families
should choose a good school period. Yeah, to me, it's
not about charter, parochio private obviously or traditional public. You know, obviously,
I'm here to promote and share about the great work
that we're doing across United charter high schools, and you know,
(19:52):
I'm I'm so happy about that. But I believe, you know,
the in the spirit of thinking about what's best for
the families and community that we serve, I would encourage
families to do your research and find really good schools. Absolutely,
charter schools I think provide our families options. I've seen
it so many times where the neighborhood school and.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
This was the case for me.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I grew up in the South Box and quite frankly,
my parents moved to certain areas because the neighborhood schools
were just not meeting it.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah. Yeah, and at that time, the only option for.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
My families were the traditional public school or paying for
parochial schools, which at that time my parents couldn't afford.
And I do think charter schools give families so many
different options, especially in cities like New York, Washington, Houston,
in LA where there's so many different options.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
We talked on the core values, and you know why
someone our family should choose United Charter high schools for
their program or academic life. Yeah, how do you integrate
the daily student life and what's going on outside of
the house or you know, like personal things, what they're
doing on the weekends.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
How does that tie into United Chariter High school. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
So, you know, we our schools obviously, you know, as
I shared or we provide multiple opportunities for teaching and learning,
but we also have a plethora of extracurricular and after
school and in some cases weekend experiences for our students on
our schools. Across our schools, every campus has several after
(21:33):
school clubs and teams. We're part of the PSA PA
SA L League for several different sports where our students
are competing and in fact competing with so many other
student athletes across the city. And in fact, we have
several current students that are competing at D one school.
(21:58):
We even have a former student from a MS Advanced
Math and Science three who is currently in the NFL,
Titus Leo Great plays for the New England Patriots. So
like those kind of experiences are having our kids and
our campuses are on the weekends on Saturdays for practice
they're having our kids coming in for games throughout the weekend.
(22:21):
And we also, you know, do a lot of experiences
to set our kids up for their post secondary experiences. So,
as I kind of hinted on before, a good amount
of our schools are planning college trips to go to
different universities. We several of our schools have planned and
are doing.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
A broad trip trips abroad.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
So there's a plethor of different countries that teachers and
some leaders are planning trips and it's giving you know,
what I believe is just a whole well rounded experience
for our kids to not just have learning within the
walls in our schools, but you know around the world
as well.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Let's talk about civic engagement where your priorities and just
getting back to that community.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
What does that look like?
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah, So, how it plays out in our schools is
that our students in their junior and senior year have
an opportunity to kind of dig deep into tackling a
problem most of the time that's connected to their school
through a civic engagement experience. And the experience is essentially
(23:30):
groups of students that are working together to create a
solution to solve some type of school related problem. That
those presentations are done in a way where they present
to guests and then ultimately the students have an opportunity
to kind of win an award to like actually be
(23:51):
funded for their project to be funded.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Also, it turns into reality. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Yeah, it's kind of like kind of like a shark
tank ish of experience for our students. What that does
is a it just promotes a high level of high
level critical thinking with the students. Students have to kind
of learn to work with their peers. Their kind of
culmination to it is that they have experiences and the
(24:18):
economics and their government classes in their junior year where
they kind of learn a lot of the kind of
ins and outs of like different aspects that connect to
these projects. And then they get to select their focus
for their project and their senior year, and then they
present before their graduation.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
It's really like they're seeing it through Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, and this connects to civic deeal of readiness that
they actually get in their graduation diplomas as well. I mean,
this happens across all of our schools. It may look
a little different in terms of execution, but it happens
in all of our schools.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
I really really love that part of.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Our work, and I think it as particularly within the
currentolitical climate.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
That we're in.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
I think that we, you know, could broaden this focus
to not just be like problems within our schools per se,
but problems that may just be existent to our world
and to our country.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
So I'm hopeful that.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
You know, some of these projects over the next several
years will be tackling some of those things.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
I come from a family of educators. So my mom
is was a school teacher in Nork, New Jersey at
Westside High School. Yes, so she's she's been, she has stories. Yes,
her and I have talked about only bringing up politics,
talking about the political climate and what might be like
the end of the Board of Education. Does that what
(25:39):
does that look like? You know, does that impact you
guys at all?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Like, well, we don't know yet.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Today actually might be the historic moment of the formal
executive signing to dismantle the Department of Education nationally.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Right now there are still a lot of unknowns.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
But do you know that the areas that may be
impacted are the federal governments focused on tracking data, particularly
for diverse learners. There's a whole built out structure that
if that establishment is no longer existing, there's a wondering
around how that tracking of data. I think the other
(26:22):
piece is that the Department Education has set standards for
academic excellence across the country, and if that entity is
no longer here, there's a strong possibility that we will
have a shift around what the standard is for academic excellence.
(26:43):
So I think there's still a lot of unknowns. I
think in the weeks to come we will potentially get
more guidance from if that entity is shut down, probably
the state will probably take on in terms of giving
us some structure and guidance around whatever could do.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
But wrapping up, what are some plans that you can
share about your vision for United Charter High Schools in
the future. Anything would you like like taking on more schools?
Is it expanding, you know, getting out of the New
York State?
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Is going to Jersey? Like? What what do you have?
Speaker 3 (27:17):
So you know, our focus right now is largely around
building out the infrastructure for our schools. Our schools were
founded through another organization about twelve thirteen years ago. United
Charter High Schools is the inaugural year. Even though our
schools have been around for you know, over a decade,
(27:39):
most of them been over a decade. This is the
first inaugural year of United Charter High School. We actually
went through a name changing ceremony last year to announce
the shift from what we used to be known formerly
known as New Visions for Public Schools to United Charia
High Schools Fantastic and you.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Know, so part of this is this year is building
out an infrastructure.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
We're looking at further developing kind of three big areas.
The first is, like, you know, we are looking to
flesh out what this structure which is known as a
portrait of a graduate. I mean essentially what that balls
down to is like what are the like attributes, What
are the competencies?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
What are the skills that we want.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Every single student to have by the time they leave
our doors? And like how we fostering the how we're
developing that from the time that they enter our doors.
And like we have a team which is called the
Network Inquiry Team. We have a team of educators that
are working on building out our kind of attributes in
(28:41):
a way that will help us to like have a
clear roadmap of how we're doing that across our schools.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
That's the first thing.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Second thing is like we are really looking at ways
to just support recruitment across all of our schools. Like
part of the reason why I'm here is so that
what I believe are some of the best kept secrets
and some of the communities that we serve.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
I want families to know about us.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Yeah, yeah, And you know, we are going we're hitting
the pavement.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Hard to like talk about the great work.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
We're encouraging families to go to United Charda High School
dot org to like find out more about us, to
if they have a child that's in ninth and twelfth grade,
to have the opportunity to apply directly at United Charda High.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
School dot org.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
And we're really looking systematically about doing that and through
media campaigns and through a lot of other recruitment efforts.
And then I think the biggest thing is that we
believe that the teaching and learning process is iterative and
that there's always way that we can be better with that. Absolutely,
so we're like continuously working on building out systems to
(29:48):
improve that.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
I want to talk a little bit about you for
a minute. What is your self care look like. Imagine
you're traveling all over the citate, you know, like coming
from Jersey to the city. I do it every day.
So from the same area, how do you relax? Like
what is what is a day? What does a day off?
Where weekend look like?
Speaker 3 (30:09):
So you know, I have my children are nine and
eleven on divij and so my weekend spent I've spent
a lot of time with my kids doing taking them
from sports events and having down time with them, reading
and hanging out. But for me, I'm a big person
on balance, So yeah, you know, I think it's important
(30:30):
that and I put in long hours every single day
and sometimes throughout the weekend, so I like to have
a balance with working out. I have several nights where
I play basketball and a forty and above league to
just keep those kind of like act insect and thinks
(30:51):
in the court active. And then you know, I do also,
you know, I'm a big believer and just constant learning.
Hence the reason why I've gotten through so many educational programs.
So I do a lot of reading and like personal
reflection as well.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Do you see your kids, like, do you do they
know what they want to do? Do they want to
go in the education route or are they completely over it?
What do they want to do?
Speaker 3 (31:18):
So they've been able to view a daddy as a
principal several years back. Then they came to my school,
so I think, you know, my son already wants to
be He said he wants to be an engineer.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Completely different. Yeah, yeah he is. He is like big
and he's really into like fixing things.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
He was that type of kid that would take things
apart and put together and put it back together when
he was like three years old.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Okay, yeah, so he has that. He has that kind
of type of thinking in his brain.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
My daughter is definitely more on the art side, and
which actually I'm also I'm and I went to art
high school. I'm a former graffiti artist, so, like you know,
so she probably has a bit of that for me
as well. But she's she's she's a great singer, it's
a great dancer, and she's like very social. So I
(32:11):
could see her maybe going into one of the sids.
Whatever they decide. I'm gonna support absolutely. That's kind of
like my motto.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
We will be playing her song here on my heart.
So yes, just to wrap up, big music lover, if
you had your own iHeart radio station on our app.
Which artists and songs would you feature?
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Could be like a playlist, could be a nice little group.
You know, how many songs could I up to you?
Up to you? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (32:39):
All right, Usually there's like a five like saying five
because and then having each of the artists kind of
be like nothing like one another. But it could be
open to anything.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
All right. So let me just get they're not this
you know, like about it. You're like music is very.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Important to be okay, Okay, so all right, so I
the first would be Whitney Houston. I cannot go wrong
with the good Whitney Houston song. And I probably would
pick the more up tempo Whitney Houston.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Maybe my love. The second would be Sam Cook.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Wow, okay, and I would say anything from Sam Cook anything.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
We're R and B lane, Yes, the R and B lane.
The next would be.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Okay, absolutely and again R and B but I think
she's just so those are like when I have my
peaceful time, like there's those are artists that I would
listen to.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
I would probably go next with Jay Z Okay, get
a little bit more up more.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
I was gonna go with the Originally for the Bronx,
I was going to go to the Bronx artist, but
I gotta give it to Jay like Jay and I
would probably go with anything from the Black Album from
jay Z, from Jack Okay, and then you know, I
would probably go with a probably an unknown artist to most,
but Fred Hammond. Yes, he is a gospel artist and
(34:15):
he like is very very influential and like supporting his music,
supporting me through some really tough parts of my life
when folks passed and so forth.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
So I would go with Fred Hammon. I like that
playlist there, like very twenty four hours. It seems very soulful,
very It could be a little loud at some points.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
With jay Z, but that's okay.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
To wrap up, how do you I know you mentioned
the website a couple of times just in the conversation,
But families want to learn more about that, about the schools,
about the visions big Where can they find them?
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Yeah, United dot Org.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
All of our handles on there as well, and the
phone numbers are there as well.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
If you're interested in contact us directly.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
United We'd love to connect with families, particularly over the next.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Several weeks before we have our lottery or our mission.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I was gonna say that school, is this the time?
Are people too late? You know, like what is the
sweet spot of like hey, like you need to enter?
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Yeah, we would We would hope to have families, particularly
families that are entering in ninth grade, that they would
apply before April eighth. We can think about admission posts
April eighth, okay, because technically families have up until September to.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Make that decision.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
But our lottery is held on April eighth, and that's
the process that all charter schools in the state of
New York have a lottery admission.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
But United chatter High School dot org.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
You can click on and roll now you can be
directed to the process to apply.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
And what's the last thing if you want to the
people that are if you had to give one sentence
or one paragraph to people that are on the fence,
families that are on expensive about charter schools, what would
you say.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
I would say to families is that you know, there
has been so much media and attention to the charter
schools that in some cases may have like prison like
structures where there's like very.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Strict, very not family friendly. In some cases, student friendly experiences.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
And you know, our charter schools are schools that, as
I stated before, have an inclusive family engagement.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
We're looking to partner with families.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Our charter schools have classes where we focus on Dollybell instruction.
We have safe learning environments cross Brooklyn, Queens in the Bronx,
and you know, we would welcome families to have an
opportunity to see us in real time by coming out
to seeing the great work that we're doing across our schools.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Fantastic doctor is great talking to you today, same here.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
You can find more episodes of the Building Biz Podcast
on iHeartRadio or wherever you stream your podcast. My name
is David Montague and we will see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.